miriams ramblings

Will This work?

2007-03-28T12:11:00.000+01:00

Summer Holiday

2007-02-22T08:32:00.000Z

I'm very excited, because we have booked our summer holiday here! Just have to decide what to do with the cats for 2 weeks now.

Esther's 18th

2007-02-13T20:46:00.000Z

Everybody (except mim)
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

More pics from the night are available on Flickr. It was a really nice meal, and Adam and I even managed to drag Esther out for some Cocktails afterwards. We didn't corrupt her too much though, as she had to be up early on Sunday morning!

There are also some pics of a trip Adam and I made to the West Midlands Safari Park on Monday. Highlight was definitely the White Lion Cubs, oh and getting trapped for about 20 minutes by some African Wild Dogs.

Visiting Ben at Fallowfields

2007-01-21T16:58:00.000Z

Precious
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Yesterday I had the good luck of having a few spare hours while Adam was watching Liverpool v Chelsea. I had thought I could con some lunch out of Dad and Lorraine, but when I called Lorraine to find out where they were Ben answered and suggested I go up to Fallowfields with him and Esther and go out for a walk with them. When I got there Ben was cleaning out the birds so Esther and I gave him a hand, and then we took James' dogs out for a quick walk. Maisie and Gilly are lovely dogs, and it was really nice to be able to walk out across the fields with them. I found a rabbit skull which I was quite proud of! When we got back with the dogs, Ben suggested we take Connie and a ferret out to try to hunt some rabbit. So Ben carried Connie, I carried the ferret (in a box on my back) and Est carried a spade (apparently in case the ferret killed a rabbit in a hole and we had to dig it out!) and off we went. We walked for quite a long time, but unfortunately didn't actually catch anything. Connie did attempt to catch a pheasant, but she was a bit too slow. We did see a couple of rabbits too, and she had a good go at one of them, but again failed to catch it. The poor ferret didn't even get let out of the box at all.

It was a really enjoyable few hours, even having to drive home barefoot due to the muddiness of my shoes! I think I'll have to go up there more often, and hopefully see Connie catch something.

Talking of catching small animals, our cats have very kindly brought us two birds and a mouse in recent weeks. Its very kind of them but I wish they'd stick to leaves and twigs!

Have been sent home from work...

2007-01-18T13:02:00.000Z

...because of this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6274869.stm

Update: half of the buidings have been evacuated!

Second Update: have just seen on Central News that they think it was Animal Rights Activists who sent the bomb, meaning it was meant for my department, eek!

Third Update: It wasn't meant for our department, keep an eye on the news for more info!

There's more...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6279897.stm

Six Wierd Things

2007-01-09T09:02:00.000Z

Right, I am doing this because I have been tagged TWICE (thanks a bunch Heidi and Sarah!) and if I don’t do it soon, Esther will probably tag me too!

Six weird things about me.

THE RULESEach player of this game starts with the ’six weird things about you’ blog post. People who get tagged need to write their own six weird things post and state the rules clearly. At the end of the post tag six more people and don’t forget to leave a comment on their blog to tell them they have been tagged and tell them to read your blog.

1. I dislike using black pens. Particularly when writing on a printed/photocopied page, it just all looks a bit, well, black! I will always try to find a blue pen in preference to writing in black.

2. I talk to my cats. A lot. I’m fairly certain they understand me too. I don’t actually think this is that odd, but I’m sure some people do.

3. I eat my food in order. That means eating my least favourite food on the plate first, and finishing up with the best part, normally the meat!

4. I don’t really like having coppers in my wallet, mainly because I don’t like touching them, due to the smell. I would never stand in a queue and have my money ready in my hand if it involved coppers, they would have to stay in the wallet until the very last minute!

5. I don’t understand yahtzee. I know it is quite simple, but how do you know what to choose to go for? It just makes no sense to me!

6. I actually think I’m fairly normal, which is probably the wierdest thing about me! I has taken me so long to think of these things, that I ended up thinking I’m just not strange!

I have no idea who to tag apart from Esther, as everyone I know who blogs has done it already!

Laboratory Manager

2007-01-04T16:42:00.000Z

Well, after a gruelling interview process (I was asked on Tuesday if I would be interested), I have just been given the role of Laboratory Manager! Should be interesting!

Time Waster

2006-11-27T11:22:00.000Z

This is currently amusing me/ doing my head in.

I knew I'd forget something!

2006-11-23T13:56:00.000Z

Last weekend we went down to a friends dad's restaurant near Watford. It was absolutely fantastic. Food was delicious, service was great (although I think the staff may have been on their best behaviour, as the owner's daughter was there!). I would recommend it if you're ever in the area! I ate so much that I was still stuffed in the morning, and didn't even eat breakfast at the hotel! Fortunately, we weren't paying, other wise I think we could have been a bit shocked by the bill for 8 three-course meals, wine, and Armagnac for the men.

Catch Up

2006-11-23T12:19:00.000Z

Right, I suppose the time has come to let anyone who may still be checking this know what we have been up to over the past 2 months!

So let me think back....

The beginning of October was Adam's birthday. We went out with his football mates, for a joint do with another friend at Jongleurs comedy club. I can't really remember who the comedians were, but I remember laughing quite a lot! we also went down to London to see some uni mates, combining that with going to see Maxïmo Park, who I thought were fantastic.

Other weekends have also been taken up with various people leaving work, so going out to say goodbye to them (notably Brian, Hayley and Jamie), and more gigs (Keane and Razorlight). I am finding hard to decide which gig out of all of them was my favourite, the Maxïmo Park one was a bit different because we had seats upstairs at the Brixton Acadamy. I was a bit worried about this, but the atmosphere was really good, and I had a fantastic view! The first four rows of seated people had to actually sit down, but because we were behind that, we could stand up. Being fairly short, I did appreciate actually being able to see the band we were listening to! Keane were better than I expected them to be, obvioulsy loving being back on the road after rehab! I knew I would love Razorlight as we had seen them before, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff when they were supporting Oasis, so to see them at a smaller venue was great (we saw both Keane and Razorlight at the Rivermead in Reading). i also managed to stand behind several people smaller than me at the Keane gig, which was nice. Along the gig theme, we have also been to see Zane Lowe at Po Na Na. If you look closely enough you can actually see Adam and me in some of the photos. We were grooving away right at the front, getting very hot and sweaty, and even had a hug with the man himself afterwards!

We also celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary with a trip to London to see The Sound of Music. Having watched most of the TV programme where they picked who was going to play Maria, we thought it would be fun to go and see it. I really enjoyed it. I suppose liking the sound of music in the first place is possibly a prerequisite for enjoying it at the theatre though. Also managed to meet up with another uni mate that night, who is now in Japan for 8 months, then planning on spending some time in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. I was glad to be able to meet up with him, as it looks like he might not be around here for a good 2 years now! Nearly didn't recognise him though, last time I saw him he had a ridiculous mullett, but now has no hair whatsoever.

We have also been up to Birmingham for a weekend with Ang and Nick, which is always funny. I wish we got to see them more often, but we're just slack at organising things between us! I have also been to a Murder Mystery evening with work, which was quite amusing, but has resulted in various dramas, I think the less said about them the better, am generally trying to keep out of it, but in a department of about 11 people, where 4 of them are involved in said dramas, its quite hard!

I have also been working out quite a lot, trying to slim down before Christmas so that I can gorge myself later! Have been quite enjoying it, but the aches and pains afterwards are not so great. Wednesday is becoming a weekly 2 hour session, but my friend Hayley is a wimp and can only manage an hour!

Adam's still playing footie, they're actually not doing too badly at the moment. His job seems to be going well, but it is getting harder to get up in the mornings now its dark and cold! He's still home before me fairly frequently though! But who in their right mind decided that shirts should be worn for work? I never used to do any ironing before he started this job! And before everyone says 'just let him do it himself' it is a whole lot easier for me to do it and not hear the moaning! My work has been calming down nicely, just about managing to keep busy for the entire day at the moment, but no doubt that will soon become harder, and I'll be moaning that I'm bored!

We are having a new bathroom fitted in December, so have been gleefully neglecting to clean the current one as thoroughly as I should. It also means I have a nice week off work, without actually having much to do, and I am really looking forward to it!

Right I think thats about it! I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but basically, we've been busy enjoying ourselves!

2006-11-08T14:32:00.000Z

We had a murder mystery evening last friday, this is a very sleepy looking me, my manager Jaimie and my good friend Elley. I think everyone enjoyed themselves, but I think the Commercial Director is now a bit worried about having agreed to do Karaoke with me at our Christmas Party. Apparently we're going to sing Elton john and Kiki Dee, Don't go Breaking my Heart! more photos can be supplied by keir at a fee (sorry, just stole this one Keir!)

Domestication

2006-09-29T10:14:00.000+01:00

I felt very domesticated the other day, Adam was outside doing many jobs like mowing the lawn, I was preparing a roast, where all the vegetables bar the potatoes came from our own garden!

I did comment to Adam that all we needed now was a couple of kids, didn't quite get the response I was after!!

Ruth and Paul's Wedding

2006-09-07T21:09:00.000+01:00

leaving the Centre
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Here are some photos from Ruth and Paul's wedding, just about managed to get them up before the Clarkes get back from holiday, I knew there'd be hell to pay if they weren't!

Judging by the guests at the wedding, this was the 'Salt and Light Wedding of the Year' I think nearly all the church leaders from the UK and Canada were present, I was fairly surprised not to see the Pope though! Seriously, it was a lovely day. And everyone was really happy to see these two married. My tears started as soon as I saw Sarah walk down the aisle (the bridesmaids went before Ruth). Its a good job I had waterproof mascara on!! I think I had done quite well to only cry at one of the weddings we've been to so far though.

We haven't got a wedding to go to this weekend, not sure what I'll do with myself!

The weekend

2006-08-21T21:40:00.000+01:00

Confetti
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Lets just say it was eventful!

We went up to Birmingham for one of my best friends from uni's wedding. First of all we tried to pick Jenny up from her hotel, which ang had told us was just down the road from ours. It wasn't. We didn't have aclue where her hotel was, so unfortunately had to leave her stranded to get a taxi, and head to the church by ourselves. Simon was meant to be meeting us at the church too. He is always late, and it was no surprise to us that he wasn't at the church when Ang started walking down the aisle. (I distinctly remember him overtaking us when we were on our way to my own wedding in the wedding car!) It was a surprise, however, to get a message from him saying he had walked into the wrong wedding, which was taking place just over the road from the church! He did manage to get to the right wedding in time to see most of the ceremony though!

Sometime during the photos, after Adam went back to the car to get the umbrellas, our car was broken into (pics on flickr). They have managed to completely ruin the door. Why not just smash the window? We would have been able to get that fixed the very same day, but no, bend the door so it needs replacing, and means we have to drive home without a window why don't you?! They only took Adam's broken phone too.

But anyway, it was an absolutely lovely day, Ang looked beautiful, and Nick scrubbed up rather well too. It was a little bit rainy while the photos were being done, but it only got worse while we were inside at the reception. (by this time we had a bin bag over the window to stop the majority of the rain coming in).

Looking forward to the next 3 weddings over the next 5 weeks!

Photos

2006-08-10T18:51:00.000+01:00

mud bath
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

As Sarah was moaning at me, here they are! There are more on Flickr for you to look at.

Sorry...

2006-08-10T16:59:00.000+01:00

For being a bit remiss with the photos. I have no excuses really, just haven't got round to it! Maybe I'll manage to upload them while Adam's at footie tonight.

In other news... Adam has got a job! Its in Basingstoke which is a little further away than we had hoped, but never mind!Its still doing some sort of financy type stuff, investigating complaints (don't ask me, I don't understand it!). It does mean we'll probably need a second car, so Steve, we could be in touch fairly soon! we're thinking of keeping the 306 for the moment, and getting a slightly smaller car for me to potter around Abingdon, then when he's settled we might look to change the 306 too.

I think a celebratory tea is in order!

i like this!

2006-07-26T17:22:00.000+01:00

Your walk is:
Crazy

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Hello

2006-07-26T12:58:00.000+01:00

We're back from Turkey!

Had a fab time, highlights include:

Mudbath
Turkish Bath
Having the swimming pool pretty much to ourselves for much of the 10 days
coming back with a nice tan!

Will write more later perhaps (when I'm not at work!) and get some photos uploaded.

Thought I was feeling a little under the weather...

2006-07-06T16:55:00.000+01:00

Doctor Unheimlich has diagnosed me with Miriam's Lurgy
Cause:	just one of those things
Symptoms:	wrist swelling, receding gums, glowing eyes
Cure:	exercise
Enter your name, for your own diagnosis:

2006-05-25T14:16:00.000+01:00

You Are Cookie Monster

Misunderstood as a primal monster, you're a true hedonist with a huge sweet tooth.

You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you'll eat anything if cookies aren't around.

You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and usual way of speaking

How you life your life: In the moment. "Me want COOKIE!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

I'm impressed...

2006-05-19T16:39:00.000+01:00

With Adam's housekeeping skills! I haven't had to do a load of washing, go food shopping, or even hoover while he's been off, in fact, I think the house is possibly cleaner than it ever was while we were both working. He has also sandedand revarnished the kitchen cupboards, and changed all the door knobs, started painting the kitchen tiles, had the massive hedge outside trimmed, got the garage door fixed (well, thats possibly happening today, maybe not - long story!). We have also bought a new kitchen sink, thats not fitted yet, but I'm sure it won't be long! He has also pretty much decided on all our meals, if not cooked them. Last Friday I came home to a full Italian banquet, with tomato and mozzarella bruschetta, lasagne, salad and garlic bread followed by Tiramisu, yum yum! Tonight we have a Thai main course and Strawberry flan for dessert, so not so much of a theme going on there but I'm not complaining!

On top of all the housework, he has found time to search and apply for a couple of jobs!

I love my Husband!

Going to my manager's wedding reception tomorrow. Should be a good evening. Jaimie and Vicki have been together for about 10 years, so we are all very relieved they're finally tying the knot!

Centre Parcs

2006-05-10T12:26:00.000+01:00

100_0481
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Haven't really got many photos of centre parcs. It rained pretty much the whole of saturday and sunday, but we enjoyed it anyway. We arrived around lunchtime on friday, which was a lovely day, so just had a cycle round, and went for a swim (I thought the swimming pool was great, especially the rapids!)The picture here is the view from our room, we often got woken up by the ducks and geese outside the door! On the saturday morning we did the Treasure Trail, we didn't win, think we were about 4th ish. Saturday afternoon we went horse riding. Adam rode the biggest horse that they had, because he's the fattest. The funniest part of that was when Adam's horse developped an itch and refused to move until he had scratched himself on a nearby tree, I don't think Adam really knew what to do! On Sunday Morning we did some Archery (thats what my nice bruise is from, it actually doesn't look that impressive in the picture, its even better in real life!) Sunday afternoon we played a game of tennis, and I realised just how rubbish I really am! All of those activities were interspersed with several trips to the pool!

We both really enjoyed the weekend, and liked having some time just to try something different, which we wouldn't normally do. It could get quite expensive with children though, we thought the best option would probably be to never tell them that any of the activities were on offer!

Back to work now, Adam's spending his days looking for a new job, as he finished at Hazell Carr last week. He even did some washing, cleared the garage AND cleaned the windows yesterday, I think I could get used to it!

Catch Up

2006-05-09T19:49:00.000+01:00

Play-Doh Hair Studio
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Have just uploaded some pics of our Barbecue at the end of Aril, if anyone fancies a look!

Store Wars

2006-04-26T09:43:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Lou for this one:

http://www.storewars.org/flash/

Oops...

2006-04-22T12:10:00.000+01:00

Looks like I haven't posted for a while, so here are some highlights of the past month!

Ad got told his whole office is shutting, and they are all being made redundant. Bit of a bugger but at least we're in a position where it doesn't matter too much if it takes him a few months to get a job, I'm sure there are other people in his office who will be hit harder by that sort of news.
Ben came to stay for the weekend, so ferried him around to and from Falconry and fed him. While he was at his falconry we did some gardening, cleared some beds and pulled up some nasy grassy weedy type stuff which was encroaching on the lawn.
Ben was very helpful on the sunday, and pulled up a tree from the front garden, along withg some more of the nasty weedy stuff which was out there. We also planted some tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, herbs, onions, carrots, parsnips and beetroot.
The Easter weekend was spent doing more gardening, laying new turf over the bare patches where we had dug up the weed, and visiting Ad's mum and dad in Worcester. Very nice and relaxing time there. Also got to see Dan and Sonya which was a bonus.
So far today we have potted up some of the tomatoes which were planted a few weeks ago and fitted a new catflap because the other one broke! (This one seems to have a bit of a smaller hole, Oscar better not get any fatter, thats all I can say!) We are currently waiting for Dan (Ad's best man) and Rachael to arrive, then its over to the pub to watch Arsenal v. Tottenham (Dan's an Arsenal fan) and then later on its Liverpool v Chelsea in the FA cup. At least that one is on BBC so the boys can watch it here and Rachael and I can just natter away, and get ready for going out for a meal later, but it does seem to be quite a football-focussed day!

Now I'm just hoping the weather improves before next sunday, otherwise someone could be posted outside manning the barbecue, while the rest of us wait indoors for the food!

Mainly for Sarah

2006-03-27T09:55:00.000+01:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4847424.stm

Don't stop the blog, you never know what might come of it!

Last Weekend

2006-03-21T11:02:00.000Z

Had quite an eventful one last weekend really, Friday night was 'What not to wear' with Lorraine and Esther. It was quite fun, with several catwalk shows, and a few stalls. The clothes had all been donated for the evening from shops in Oxford.

On Saturday Adam and I went down to London (£2.50 on the train - bargain!) and mooched around the shops for a while. In the evening we went to see The Producers at the theatre. It is a really funny play, which we both enjoyed. The main reason for our weekend in London was that Adam had won a Thames Lunch Cruise from work, and this was the weekend we had finally managed to book it! So on Sunday we headed down to Embankment Pier for lunch. It was actually really good. I had had visions of it being a bit rubbish, and full of old people, but I was pleasantly surprised! The food was lovely, the jazz band were really good. It was just a really relaxing way to have lunch and see a few london sights. Obviously having a nice sunny day helped too. The boat was a bit like a large conservatory, so it was nice and warm too. I found out that my manager had done exactly the same cruise the previous week to us, lucky we weren't there at the same time really!

Got home on Sunday evening, unfortunately a bit too late for me to go to the gym!!

So now I have another boring week at work ahead of me, we have some importanat visitors tomorrow, but not much else in line for this week really.

Mmm, I like strawberry Daiquiris!

2006-03-17T16:40:00.000Z

You Are a Strawberry Daiquiri

You're a fun, playful drinker who loves to party.
You may get totally wasted, but you're always a happy drunk!

What Mixed Drink Are You?

New Carpet and a Punctured Gas Pipe!

2006-03-16T12:02:00.000Z

We had the new carpet fitted yesterday. All week we've been steadily moving furniture around the house, so yesterday morning we finally had all our furniture (except one bed and wardrobe) in our living and dining rooms. The carpet fitters arrived at 8.45am, which I thought was very early for a tradesman, and all seemed to be going swimmingly until about 10am when we heard 'Quick, turn the Gas off!' We ran through the house, in and out of furniture, and turned the gas off, to find out that the carpet fitter had managed to bang 2 nails into a gas pipe. Great! He was carpetting the gym (downstairs room) and was putting grippers around the outside of the room when it happened. The pipe was only about 1cm, if that, under the surface of the concrete, which was also remarkably crumbly. Apparently any gas pipe should be 2-3 inches under the surface of the concrete, to prevent that sort of thing from happening. So anyway, we weren't really sure what to do about it, because it didn't look like it was the carpet fitters fault really, but it certainly wasn't our fault! Anyway, he got one of his friends who works for British Gas to come and fix it, but he could only come at about 5ish. So they continued to fit the rest of the carpets in the house, and finished by about 1pm. The Gas man actually appeared at about 3.30, fixed the problem in about 10 minutes, and left, whithout charging us anything! The carpet man came back and filled in the hole, and fitted the rest of the carpet. We paid him, and then he had the cheek to say he was out of pocket because he'd paid his mate for the gas works. Firstly, he didn't seem to give the gas man any money, and anyway, £200 for half a days work doesn't seem to bad to me.

Anyway, the carpet looks lovely, you can all come round now, but leave your shoes outside the front door!

Lost Cat!

2006-03-13T15:58:00.000Z

Emmy has gone missing. She was asleep on the sofa when we went to bed last night, and hasn't been seen at all today. Seeing as she hasn't gone out of the garden before I am a bit worried about her. we had a little search around at lunchtime but couldn't find her anywhere. I know cats will normally find their way back, and I probably shouldn't be worrying so much yet, but I really hope she's ok, and she's not stuck anywhere, unable to get out.

Strange things..

2006-03-06T13:52:00.000Z

.. You find when browsing the web at work

madness!

Football

2006-03-05T16:40:00.000Z

Kick off
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Yesterday Adam, Ben and I headed up to Liverpool to watch Liverpool v. Charlton. We left Abingdon at about 11.30am, and apart from a bit of traffic on the A34, the journey up was really good. We parked the car, had a bite to eat, put on about five layers each, and then headed off to the ground. We pooped into the club shop and had a little look around, but as no-one really wanted to buy much, and the queue for the shop was pretty small, it didn't take as long as planned, so we got to our seats about an hour before kick off. No one really minded though because it gave us a chance to have a drink, and snack, and watch the warm up, and just generally soak up the atmosphere! I'm not going to give you a big match analysis here, lets just say it ended 0-0, at least Liverpool didn't lose! We stopped off on the way home for a burger king at some services, and made it back to Oxford at about 11.30pm. All in all I think everyone enjoyed themselves, was just a shame Dad was travelling to Vancouver and couldn't join us really.

Today Adam and I have taught the kittens how to use the cat flap, they were a little bit nervous at first but seem to be enjoying going outside now, and been to order our new carpet. It is being fitted a week on Wednesday, so we will have a couple of days of lugging furniture down the stairs and back up again, but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end!

Little Catch Up

2006-02-27T16:07:00.000Z

So what have we been doing over the past week or so....

1. Emmy has been spayed, she now has a little bald patch on her side, complete with a few stitches which she keeps nibbling at. She's having them removed on Thursday, so they will finally be allowed outside next weekend.

2. We have been to the carpet shop to sort out changing all the carpets in the house. A man is coming to measure up and give a proper quote on Thursday.

3. I had a very fun night out on Friday with a couple of friends from work, lots of dancing and general girly giggling occurred.

and next weekend...

going to liverpool with Adam and Ben to watch Liverpool v Charlton!

Liverpool Fan!

2006-02-18T15:18:00.000Z

Liverpool Fan!
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Thought Id better just post this too, Oscar seems to have turned into a Liverpool fan. Just as well seeing as they've just knocked Man United out of the FA cup!

An Audience with Shaun Murphy

2006-02-18T15:13:00.000Z

100_0346
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Well, last night I managed to take some of the worst photos ever! Adam and I went with Dad, Lorraine and Ben to 'An Audience with Shaun Murphy' at their Church. For those of you who don't know, Shaun Murphy won the Snooker World Championships last year, so it was quite good for the church to be able to nab him for an evening (well, better than Diane Louise Jordan in my opinion anyway!) It was a very enjoyable evening, with Shaun talking a bit about his life, and the Championships, and also playing a few frames against various people in the audience. At one point he was playing against a little kid who could hardly reach the table, trying to set up nice shots for him, and Adam turned round to me and pointed out that Ronnie O'Sullivan and probably Shaun himself were winning tournaments when they were that small. Pretty amazing really!

Winner!

2006-02-16T16:43:00.000Z

I am so excited, I won both my ebay bids. Can't beat a jacket for £1 really can you!!

Valentines Day

2006-02-15T10:44:00.000Z

Well seeing as my older sister and brother have been posting about their fantastic valentines days, I thought I'd better tell you all about my day. Started off very sleepily, not wanting to get out of bed. Managed to haul myself up, shower and have breakfast. Got a card, some choccies and a dvd. Gave Adam the heart shaped custard creams and cakes with hearts all over them which I had made in a not very secretive manner on monday evening. Spent a very boring day at work. Got home, changed and went for dinner at Prezzo, which is a really nice restaurant in the new Oxford Castle development. I really like this new little development, just what Oxford needed in my opinion. The hotel is looks amazing, still looks just like a prison inside, with all the cells having been turned into rooms.

But the best thing about the day?... Getting tickets to see Liverpool v. Charlton on 4th March at Anfield!

Southampton

2006-02-13T11:55:00.000Z

This weekend we popped down to Southampton to see my brother in law Dan, and his girlfriend Sonya. We had a really nice weekend. Got there at about 7.30 friday evening, had a yummy curry, wine and watched a film. I saw we watched a film, I mean the others watched a film while I fell asleep in front of it (well when the film is only started at 10.30pm what do you expect?!). On Saturday poor Sonya had to work on her dissertation while the rest of us went shopping in Portsmouth. I managed to spend a fair amount of money, but everything was a bargain so it doesn't matter really! I got a jumper for £10 and some jeans for £30 both from French Connection. I think Adam despairs of me a bit on the jeans front, I do have about 6 pairs! I also got a new gym top, which matches my gym trousers so now I look really cool! And we splashed out on some canvases for our lounge. We've wanted to get something for ages, but haven't really seen anything, so it was really nice to finally find something which will complete the room. We went out for Pizza on Saturday night, and for a few drinks. I got asked for ID, and as I hardly ever take anything out with me these days, had to pull the 'Oh I haven't brought anything with me because my HUSBAND has got everything' line. It seemed to work! We left first on Sunday morning, and got home around lunchtime.

I am currently trying to work, but am really too busy looking at my ebay bids, am still winning a jacket for £1 and some trainers for £5.50 at the moment! I'm quite excited about them both because I saw them both in the shops for around £50, deliberated about buying them, decided I would, went back to get them and they were gone!

This week is appraisal week. I've actually had mine already, but have to do ones for my team. I actually hate this time of year, but I guess it has to be done. Just planning on having a little chat with everyone, and setting a few objectives. Fortunately I haven't got any bad ones to do this year!

Next weekend Ang and Nick are coming down to visit, so Ang and I can talk weddings while Adam and Nick talk football, should keep everyone happy!

2006-01-18T13:52:00.000Z

Today Oscar is at the vets being castrated. We decided to get him done a month early because he had started being very amourous towards Emmy. Unfortunately the feelings didn't seem to be mutual between the two cats, and we didn't really want 7 or 8 tiny kittens on our hands (actually I'd love it, but probably not very practical), so as he is the bigger of the two, and castration is a simpler procedure than spaying, it seemed logical to get him done. Neither cat seems to mind getting into their carry box at the moment, but I'm sure Oscar will after today! He cried all the way to the vets, but I think that was more to do with not having his sister with him than anything else. Emmy does seem to be missing him too. I popped home for lunch and she would not leave me alone, demanding to be stroked and played with for the whole hour. He is also being microchipped, so he could be let outside after today, but he's going to have to wait another month for that little pleasure until Emmy has had her op.

Anyway, we could still have some small kittens on our hands, as he might already have done the deed. The vet said they could ahve kittens from as early as three months (we didn't even own them when they were three months old). So I'll keep you all posted on that one, because we might need some homes for them! (Sarah - Adam has got used to them now, no more runny eyes or sneezing so Steve's excuse for not having a cat is invalid!)

Weekend Antics

2006-01-16T09:42:00.000Z

We have had a fairly relaxed weekend to be honest, nothing too much to report!

Friday evening was my friend Keir's house warming party. He has just bought a house in Grove, and obviously the best time to have a party is before you have any furniture or nice carpets in the house! It was a good party and although I was being driver for the night, so wasn't drinking, I woke up the next morning with the worst headache ever! I felt like I had drunk about 3 bottles of red wine, it was horrible. Anyway, Keir's house is really nice, and it was a pleasure to meet Mr. and Mrs. Hawker who are over here from Australia for a while. That must be a strange feeling, having your parents living under YOUR roof, and obeying YOUR rules!

After I had managed to shake off my headache on Saturday, Adam and I booked our Summer holiday here in Turkey. Please don't anyone mention the Bird Flu, I am confident that it will all be sorted by July, and if its not we just won't go near any birds.

Sunday we finallly managed to go and see The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, which I thought was really good.

That is about the extent of the weekend really, apart from me pouring a boiling hot cup of tea all over my lap and having to whip my jeans off straight away cos it was burning so much! I'll try not to do that when esther's visiting next weekend!!

Oscar in the tree

2006-01-06T18:54:00.000Z

Oscar in the tree
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

We have just taken our Christmas decorations down, but couldn't resist blogging this picture (it was actually taken ages ago, but have only just got round to uploading it). I have also uploaded a few more kitten pictures, and some Christmas, so have a look on Flickr if you want!

Nothing else to report really, hopefully going to see a friend and new baby tomorrow. Ella was born on New Years Eve, so I think we're due a visit by now! Going out with her dad (one of Adam's football mates) on Saturday night to 'wet the baby's head' so I think we should at least have met the baby beforehand!

2006-01-03T12:26:00.000Z

Your 2005 Song Is

Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz

"Love forever love is free.
Let's turn forever you and me."

In 2005, you were loving life and feeling no pain.

What Hit Song of 2005 Are You?

Christmas Winnings!!

2006-01-03T10:01:00.000Z

Our company does a Christmas prizedraw each year, so I received an email last week telling me I had won one of these! Our computer is pretty old, and seemed to be fading fast. Some days you just had to turn it straight back off again as it couldn't even cope with starting up, so we decided that as we had a brand spanking new printer, we had better get ourselves a new computer! Its nothing amazing, just a lot newer and faster than the old one! (Ben, if you fancy my old scanner, you are welcome to it, oh, and do you have all my Fast Show DVDs?) And now we have a new computer, we might even be tempted to get broadband, you never know! I am also determined to learn to type properly, which could mean that these blog entries become more frequent, but I'm not promising anything!

In other news, the kittens are growing fast (and munching through lots of wires etc). We had a lovely Christmas and New Year. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Adam's parents, and then were at my parents for the usual mad Boxing Day with all the family. The Clarkes then came back to our house for a little bit, to meet the kittens and play Singstar on the playstation, which was all good fun, even if I was rubbish at the game! I think I need a few more drinks inside me before I play that again!
New Year was spent at a friends in London. It was basically Adam's uni friends plus girlfriends. They are all really lovely people, and its really nice to be able to get everyone together every now and then. Actually there were a few noticeable absences, but it was a good evening! We managed to get to bed at about 3, but I could still hear Laura trying to rouse her boyfriend Andy and get him home (she was slapping him with all her might but it didn't seemt o be registering at all)! And I think Dan was still on the decks until about 5am. I did feel a bit sorry for the next door neighbours in the morning, when we left and I noticed a buggy outside their door!

Should have some pictures up in the next few days!

And must just say Happy 9th (eek!) Birthday to Anna, hope you have a great day honey!

Christmas Winnings!!

2006-01-03T09:29:00.000Z

You're all too slow...

2005-12-14T19:57:00.000Z

We've decided to call them Oscar and Emmy.

New Additions!!

2005-12-14T10:13:00.000Z

male
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

2005-12-14T10:12:00.000Z

female
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

yesterday we picked up our two new gorgeous kittens! I can't quite believe we have got them, I only rang Cats Protection a week ago! We had a home visit, which was all fine and two days later we have two kittens! The black one is a little boy, and the tortoiseshell is a female. We are pretty stuck for names at the moment though, so any suggestions would be gratefully received! They were called Montgomery and Farhad, but we didn't really like those names! So I am currently typing while getting the bottom of my jeans nibbled, and the other little tyke is clawing the curtains!

2005-12-05T15:33:00.000Z

Right, because BOTH Esther and Sarah want me too, here goes...(my answers are in no particular order!!)

Seven things to do before I die:
1. Get a cat
2. Swim with dolphins
3. Have kids
4. Give up work
5. Make sure I am still in love with my husband!
6. learn to type properly
7. Go on a few more exotic holidays

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Wink
2. Stick to a diet
3. Ever be as tidy as Adam
4. Give up drinking tea
5. type properly
6. Do my own hair satisfactorily
7.

Seven things that attract me to my spouse:
1. The way he loves me
2. His stupidity
3. His intelligence
4. The way he knows if I just need a hug
5. His reliability
6. His smile
7. He doesn't mind (too much) if I fall asleep while we're watching a film!

Seven things I say most often:
1. Good luck in the footie
2. never mind its only a ....
3. Yes I'd love a cup
4. No Jaimie, I do not want a job, I've got plenty to do (Oh, no sorry, thats what I'd like to say, what I really say is 'yes of course I can do that!')
5. Keir, there's a problem with STracker
6. I don't mind
7. I don't know

Seven Books I love:
Sorry, can't do books!

Seven Movies I would watch over and over again:
1. The Wedding Singer
2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
3. The sound of music
4. The Princess Bride
5. The Jungle Book
6. The Aristocats
7. Star Wars

Seven people I would like to join in too:
Well Most of the people I know who do these things have already been put on here by Esther and Sarah, so
1. Keir

2005-12-05T11:51:00.000Z

I'm 'Any way the wind blows'!

Which Line from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody Are You?

More Photos

2005-11-25T14:09:00.000Z

Have just added a few more pics to Flickr, all the wedding ones are ones taken by the photographer. Don't think they're in any particular order at the moment though, sorry!

Underwater shots

2005-11-24T12:40:00.000Z

CNV00002
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Have got a few underwater ones too, they're not amazing, but you get the idea!

Holiday Pics!

2005-11-24T12:39:00.000Z

CNV00027
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Have managed to upload some honeymoon pics now, so take a look!

Wedding!

2005-11-23T21:50:00.000Z

31430008
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Just a few pics uploaded so far, might get round to doing some more later!

Off Work

2005-11-03T10:10:00.000Z

Sorry, this isn't going to be as long as it should be, but I've got to dash out in a few minutes.

I have finally finished work, to get married on saturday!!!

The things I have done in the past few weeks are:

Had my Hen party - danced ALL night on a flashing dancefloor, pictures should arrive soon on flickr

Adam has had his stag do - sounds like he had fun at the dogs, and paintballing and generally having fun with friends, again should get some pics up soon (well, I say soon, it will be at least 3 weeks - after our honeymoon!)

We have just about finished organising the wedding, table plans are causing a bit of hassle at the moment, but thats all we've got left to do!

We're off here on sunday, am SO EXCITED!!!!!

2005-11-03T10:08:00.000Z

you are Galadriel
Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.
Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
Galadriel is a character in the Middle-Earth universe. You can read more about her at the Galadriel Worshippers Army.

Well done to Esther

2005-09-29T07:34:00.000+01:00

If you take a look over at Esther's blog, you can see she did pretty damn well in her French GCSE. She got one of the top 5 marks in her exam board. Amazing! Adam and I are quite proud of my little sis, even if all Ad could say was 'What about the other 9 GCSEs?!'

For Esther, Heidi, Sarah and Keir

2005-09-27T22:14:00.000+01:00

Well, where to start? I got a nice little email from Keir the other day, reminding me it has been a whole month since I posted anything. So now I have all this updating to do, and can't really remember what we've done!

First of all let me just say sorry for not blogging. I just haven't really felt like it recently. I think its a mixture between not really wanting to look at a screen for a second longer than necessary, and not feeling like I really have much to say! Oh, and the fact that we are not allowed to use the internet at work any more. Fortunatel we have quite a relaxed boss, who said he won't be insisting that access is removed from our computers, unlike some other bosses!

I think the last time I posted was around the time of our summer party. Now although this was a very nice and welcome afternoon off work, the party followed quite quickly by a bank holiday has meant that ever since then we have been pretty much 2 days behind at work. So many long days and weekends have been put in, and I think we are now nearly on the downhill slope towards a quiet winter. I am so looking forward to finishing the days work by 11am! Please remind me of this when I am moaning that we have nothing to do!

So apart from that, what have we actually done in the past month?!

at some point we went to London for a mate's birthday party on a boat down the river. Another friebnd was DJ-ing, and it was really nice to see people. We headed to Notting Hill Carnival too, which was good, although if was to go again, I certainly woulodn't go with a group of nine people who wanted to get to a particular sound system. It meant we followed pretty much the same floats up the road all the way.
We have decorated the 'master' bedroom in the house so it is ready to move into after the wedding! It does look really nice, if you ignore the carpet! All the carpets in the upstairs of the house really need replacing. At the moment we have really nice pale blue walls, and a green carpet. Not a particularly good combo.
We have bought waistcoats for the page boys and cardies for the bridesmaids (well, not the older ones, they just have to suffer the cold!)
We have booked the fireworks display
We have decided on a menu for the reception
Adam and Dan (best man) have sorted out their clothes for the day.
Tonight we had the first session of 'Marrige Prep'. To be honest this was not something either of us were particularly looking forward to, but it was ok. The only hard part was when we had to think of something that worried us to talk about! I hope the rest of it goes alright too.

Well I think thats me done for now. I will try to take Keir's advice and update this regularly, but without getting to work even earlier (than 7am!) in the morning I think I'm going to struggle to do it every day! We'll see.

Heidi - Sorry I haven't emailed you a pic of Ad and I yet, I did get your text and will do it asap!

Longleat

2005-08-21T21:53:00.000+01:00

P8210130
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Today we went to Longleat. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! We had been a while back and just been in the Safari Park, so today we went to the house and grounds. We met Adam's mum and dad there, and just generally had a lovely day!

Summer Party

2005-08-21T21:50:00.000+01:00

P8190121
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Friday was my work summer party. The afternoon was quite fun, with a mini knockout competition (which the boys from our department + Adam and Keir won - champagne all round!!) and barbecue, Quad bikes and lawnmower racing and laser clay pigeon shooting. There was also a bouncy castle and face painting, and big jenga and connect four. The weather held out, which was good because there wasn't really a lot of cover around! Unfortunately this picture was the only one I got, because the camera batteries ran out. I did put spares in my bag, but they were flat too, oops! I actually think its really nice that we are allowed to bring families/partners to our summer party. We all went into Oxford afterwards, and the only downpoint was Myself and Alice being ID's in Chequers and neither of us having any ID. This actually wouldn't normally bother me, but I had already had one drink in there, and was just standing by the bar with Louisa, wasn't even going to order another drink anyway, but they still said we had to leave! All in all it was a very pleasant afternoon and evening!

2005-08-17T22:00:00.000+01:00

I am writing this while watching 'Lost' so sorry if this is doesn't flow very well, or is really short, because I might just give up on this and watch the telly!

Yesterday Adam and I went out and ordered a load of furniture to kit out our spare bedroom. We have decided to go for a pale blue and chocolate theme. We probably won't actually get round to decorating until after we're married, and I think I'm going to find it hard to decide which room to amke our bedroom, because I absolutely love the one bedroom which we have already decorated, but the spare one is actually bigger, and hopefully I'll like it just as much!

It is my company Summer Party on Friday. Should be a nice afternoon off work, with a few entertainment type things, then we are all going into Oxford for Hugh's leaving do Could be quite funny as one of the girls in my department has quite a thing for Hugh. As soon as he walks into the room she turns into a giggling wreck. Its quite a source of amusement at work, especially as she knows full well she's got no chance as he's recently got engaged!

Anyway, thast it for now, I'm off to concentrate on the TV!

Gift List

2005-08-14T16:02:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we went to Debenhams to set up our wedding list. I thought this would be a fairly easy task, just go round and scan everything I would like to own! I actually found it fairly difficult, and I don't think Adam found it much easier! I'm not going to go on about it too much, I just found it quite hard to decide if we needed/just wanted stuff because we could add it to the list easily! Anyway, it took us a good 2 hours of walking round one floor of the shop, but at least its done now!

We also ordered our wedding rings. We ordered our cake too earlier in the week so I do feel like we're getting there on the organisation front. The only thing that I'm a little worried about is the fireworks. We would really like to have some, as we are getting married on bonfire night, but just for that reason all the proffessional companies charge massive premiums, and will only do your fireworks if they can fit you around other displays they might be doing in the area! You can buy single ignition boxes of fireworks which go off for quite a while, so it looks like we might be going down that route and try to find someone sensible enough to set it off for us! This also means we will have to look into insurance for them, as the pros come with their own insurance. Oh well, I'm sure we'll get there sooner or later.

We went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today, which I thought was very good, and it even made me giggle out loud a few times. There's not actually many things which will make me laugh out loud while watching them, so it must have been alright!

Planning on cooking our first proper roast tonight, after we picked up a joint of beef in budgens for £2 reduced from £8! Should be able to make a few sandwiches with it afterwards too!!

Oh, and we won the pub quiz again last thursday, thats a 100% record now, and £40 worth of vouchers. Think we might all go out for a meal with it soon!

Catching Up

2005-08-10T21:56:00.000+01:00

I have been slightly remiss with blogging recently haven't I! I do apologise. Anyway, here's a brief update of what we have done since I last wrote anything.

Wednesday - work + gym
Thursday - work
Friday - work
Saturday - Spent a very nice relaxing morning at home, getting up late and generally doing nothing except for watching the athletics. After lunch we headed up the M1 to Nottingham to see our friend Liz who was having a birthday barbecue. We were actually staying over at another friends house, so arrived at his at about 3pm, at which point his girlfriend got out of bed!! After a bit of catching up we all headed over to Liz's. The weather had cleared up nicely and it was actually lovely and sunny for most of the afternoon and evening. It was really nice to catch up with a few old friends, a lot of whom I probably hadn't seen since we all met up for liz's birthday last year!! In the evening we headed off to a club in town, where we all used to go in our Uni days. It has completely changed though, and just seemed a little bit wrong! It used to just be one big dancefloor upstairs, and a smaller, sweatier room downstairs, where the students would hang out. The downstairs now has an amazing flashing dancefloor! Very cheesy! So we spent the night there, and then walked back to Brian's via Adam's favourite old haunt, Nottingham Kebab House. To be fair, the kebabs are probably the nicest I've ever tasted, and for £1.50 you can't really complain, but they are still kebabs! The funny thing was that the kebab shop owner, Bash, remembered Ad from his uni days, and even asked after the rest of the gang!
Sunday - after watching a bit of the cricket, Adam and I headed into Nottingham for a spot of shopping. We managed not to spend too much money this time! We then went to meet Liz in a pub in Chilwell for lunch. Let's just say we were a little bit late, I blame the directions we were given! Oh well, we still made it and had a very lovely lunch indeed. We got home at about 6pm, and then I think we had some tea and I collapsed into bed! (I admit I am a complete lightweight and one night out finishes me off!)
Monday - Work
Tuesday - Work (until 7pm!)
Today - Work (starting at 7am!). This evening have been to the gym (slight detour on the way to the Kassam Stadium because Ad was going to watch the football, but his friends car broke down, so I had to take them all) and watched Big Brother. Was quite surprised that Eugene took the money, after he cried about a decision over having tea and cakes the other day. Have also fed Dad and Lorraine's fish and watered their plants, AND recorded The Bill for dad. He sent me some sob story email about the signal in the caravan not being very good so he couldn't watch it. I'm quite frankly appalled that he asks me to video it for him. I know full well that if I asked him to ever video Eastenders, or anything else that I like to veg out infront of he would refuse just out of principle.

I hope this account satisfies those of you who have been waiting for me to post something, although I'm sure there aren't that many of you! I'll try and keep up in the future, but after sitting at a computer for the majority of the day at work, I very rarely feel like sitting in front of one at home too, so when I'm busy at work and don't have time for a sneaky update, I might lapse again.

Ill

2005-08-02T14:40:00.000+01:00

I have caved in and taken a day off work. I was finding it pretty difficult to concentrate yesterday, and luckily today was going to be one of the quietest days we've had for a while, so I decided a day at home might just sort me out! I did however bring some work home. Normally I wouldn't be able to do that, but as I didn't need anything off the work network for it, I though it would be a good opportunity to get it done. So I nicked a laptop and have been diligently working away from my sickbed. Well actually I got up late, worked for a bit this morning, finished everything before lunch and have spent the majority of the afternoon so far here. There's something very comforting about being able to spend the day in pyjamas (well, my pj bottoms and a T shirt anyway!) and not going near a hairbrush.

I am feeling a bit better now, still coughing a spluttering everywhere, but should manage to make it to work tomorrow!!

Esther came back from China yesterday. Sounds like she had a really good time, not that she's updated her blog yet, but I'm sure she'll get round to it soon! Unfortunately her camera broke on the first day there, but she said she's going to get some of her friends to send her some, so hopefully will get to see some in the near future.

I don't really have much more to report. This weekend we are venturing up to Nottingham to see our friend Liz whose birthday was last sunday. She's planning a barbecue so hopefully the weather will hold out for it.

Sunday Afternoon Fun

2005-07-31T19:38:00.000+01:00

After taking Dan and Sonya to the train station, and having a spot of lunch, we popped over to Mark and Heidi's for a few hours. The whole of the Clarke family were there to meet the newest addition to the family, Elodie. Unfortunately I have got a bit of a cold, so had to stay a safe distance away from Elodie, but she really is gorgeous. The others all had lots of cuddles, so I'm sure she didn't feel left out because I couldn't cuddle her!! It was really nice to see everyone, but Sarah and I realised that although we'd made arrangements to see each other in August, one of us had got the wrong weekend (again!) so we've had to canel it for now which is a bit disappointing.

Anyway, we have just got home and I think I'm going to go and have a bath and go to bed fairly soon because I am feeling pretty rubbish at the moment.

Oh, forgot to say, we won the pub quiz on Thursday! I'm sure we wouldn't have won if it hadn't been for Andy and his immense music knowledge. We got £20 vouchers for food and drink in the Boundary House, but between 6 people that doesn't really go too far. Guess we'll have to try and win again next week and build up our money!

NEWS FLASH

2005-07-31T19:37:00.000+01:00

More photos from Zakynthos have been added to my flickr site, so take a look!!

Punting with Dan and Sonya

2005-07-30T18:27:00.000+01:00

P1290118
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

Today has been very pleasant so far. After a very lazy morning and a cooked brunch, Adam, Dan (Ad's Brother) Sonya (Dan's girlfriend) and I all popped into Oxford for a little look round, then decided it would be quite nice to go punting. It was a really nice way to spend an hour or so, even though we didn't quite make it to the pub! I'm sure we will get there next time. It did start raining at one point, but didn't last too long, and certainly didn't mean we enjoyed it any less! I was the only one out of the group who had actually been punting before, but everyone had a go, and there weren't too many crashes! We did have a near miss with some fishing line, but thankfully the fisherment were fairly on the ball and managed to reel it in before we got tangled up!

We're off outt o dinner later which should be nice, probably stay in Oxford for a few drinks too. Then tomorrow will hopefully get time to pop over to Mark and Heidid's as all the Clarkes will be there to meet 2 month old Elodie. That probably means that we won't get many cuddles with her, but I'm sure Caleb and the other kids will entertain us!

As Promised...

2005-07-28T18:49:00.000+01:00

P1160100
Originally uploaded by adam.mim.

So this is what we spent most of our holiday doing!! We're both looking a bit shiny on this photo, but never mind! I have only managed to upload 6 photos so far, but I'll add some more later. (click on the pic to see the others).

We haven't really done much else this week, have both been working late on various nights, which hasn't been great but at least the weather has been horrible, makes it a little more bearable! Off to a pub quiz tonight, then have got Adam's brother and his girlfriend staying for the weekend. I *think* they're arriving tomorrow, but not entirely sure. I might even manage to take and post some more photos over the weekend, you never know!

Flickr

2005-07-28T18:44:00.000+01:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I am Really Annoyed

2005-07-27T22:33:00.000+01:00

Because I came home early, specifically to add some holiday photos onto here, but for some reason unknown to me, I can't access the flickr site, and also can't even upload photos straight to here. This is not just me being rubbish, I keep getting a stupid service provider message.

I'll keep trying!

Sorry, fed up, am going to bed. Might try again tomorrow!

2005-07-24T18:23:00.000+01:00

I'm really sorry I haven't managed to get any holiday snaps up here yet, I just haven't found the time! The thing is, I can really only do it easily at my parents house (having broadband and a generally faster computer than us) and I haven't quite been organised enough to take the camera round and get there early enough in the evening to do it before falling asleep!!

We had a fabulous holiday, the highlights being:

a) the glorious weather
b) amazing food!
c) The trip to see the shipwreck, absolutely beautiful blue sea
d) Turtle spotting

We both came home with fairly good tans, wasn't so happy with the comment from Keir that I looked like I'd been tangoed though.

This weekend has been good. Had a lovely barbecue at Keir's house, didn't stay too late though because we had to get up fairly early to go to my cousin Rebecca's wedding in Sheffield on the Saturday. It's funny how much more attention you pay at weddings when you're planning your own! Becky looked gorgeous in a very plain ivory dress, and her husband Kazuhiro (Hiro for short!) who I had never met before seemed lovely. It was a really nice, relaxed, understated day. Nothing over the top. The food at the reception was delicious. Roast Beef, Lamb, Pork, Gammon, Turkey and Salmon. Adam had them all!! Unfortunately we had to leave fairly early to get back to drop Ben at Mark and Heidi's.

Today we have been into town, and to Tesco's and spent far too much money! I feel it can be vaguely justified though because it is all stuff specifically for our honeymoon, which we won't be able to get nearer the time!

Also had a text from Esther fromChina today which was a nice surprise, sounds like she's having a brilliant time!

I am quite excited because I am going on a visit to a farm tomorrow, to see how they take the blood samples which we test. Should be a fun morning off work anyway!!

Quick Hello

2005-07-20T13:16:00.000+01:00

Well, we are back from our holiday (actually got back at 1am yesterday) so thought I'd say a quick hi on here. I can't be long though, because I'm at work, and theoretically should actually be working!!

We had a fantastic time in Zakynthos, will give a full update later, with the possibility of some photos!!

2005-07-04T19:45:00.000+01:00

This weekend has been a fairly busy one, some nice stuff, and some not so nice stuff.

I'll start with the not so nice stuff. After I had left the barbecue at Andy's on friday night, Rich and his friends decided they wanted to go to Strattons. Now Strattons is awful. It is Abingdon's only nightclub, frequented by a funny mix of teenagers and 50 year olds. Lou was trying to tell them all not to bother, but after a few cans they were adament. On the way there, as they were walking through the park which is pretty much next to my house, some teenage lads decided to start some trouble, and threw a bottle at Rich's brothers head. Rich, for obvious reasons, wasn't too happy, and retaliated. He is now in hospital having his broken jaw fixed. Rich isn't a small bloke by any means, but being completely outnumbered by Chav's, just didn't really have a chance. So apparently they all spent the night at the police station giving statements etc. Louisa rang me in a bit of a panic on saturday to check I'd got home ok (Andy only lives round the corner, but I had walked through the very same park), because she'd heard someone else had had some trouble with the same group of teenagers that night. Fortunately it wasn't me!

Other than that piece of news my weekend was really good. Adama and I took Esther and Ben to Oxford on saturday morning to see Est in her bridesmaid dress, and get Mark's birthday presents. Esther looked gorgeous, and I have just heard today that Kate tried it on too and liked it, so thats sorted! I also got some lovely new shoes, (the black ones) I really must stop spending money! Adam and I then pottered around here for a bit, sorting out stuff for our holiday, then drove up to Birmingham for the night. We went to see Angela, one of my best friends from uni, and her boyfriend Nick. They took us to a barbecue at one of Ang's friends houses, which was really nice, and then off to a club called Snobs in Birmingham. Snobs is a cool little indie club, which for anyone who knows Oxford, is rather like the Zodiac. Its a bit of a dive, but plays good music, and there aren't so many idiots around as in other places! We had a really good night, and didn't get to bed till about 3.30am. I had to be at work at 1pm on sunday, and just about managed to get out of bed and drive back in time! Sunday afternoon, after spending a couple of hours at work, was spent watching the Wimbledon men's final, and snoozing, perfect!

So now I only have a 4 day week at work, before heading off to Zakynthos on friday. I cannot wait. Hoepfully it will be nice and relaxing, and I'll get a good tan, thats really all I ask from a holiday.

2005-07-01T23:02:00.000+01:00

Sorry to anyone who may have been looking at this over the past couple of days hoping for an update, alhtough I doubt there's many of you! I have been starting work at 7am, and to be honest haven't really felt like looking at a computer screen when I get back, and haven't even had much time during the days to update. I actually prefer starting work early to finishing late. Somehow by the time it gets to 10am, I've forgotten that I was at work an hour and a half before everyone else, whereas if I was there til 6.30pm everyday, I dare say that would be less easily forgotten! I have managed to clock up a fair amount of overtime already this month, and its only the 1st! Roll on payday!

On Wednesday Louisa and I went to a class at the gym called Body Jam. We have been going to salsa aerobics for about 2 years, and suddenly our teacher resigned from the Abingdon gym and now only teaches in Oxford. I know its only a gym class, but we had got into quite a good routine of going on a monday and friday, and I really enjoyed it, and felt like I could at least eat what I liked, because I was still exercising. So for the past month or so I have been feeling more and more sluggish from not doing any exercise, and also getting progessively flabbier!! So anyway, Body Jam was a pretty good alternative to salsa. I managed to work up a sweat but still really enjoyed myself. Its kind of like street dancing I guess, I will soon be the coolest girl around! But now I'm going to have to change my whole routine, because body Jam is on a sunday and wednesday! I would really like to still go to salsa every now and again, but it means travelling 20 mins as opposed to 5 to the abingdon gym, and paying for the pleasure, when I get really cheap gym membership through work anyway. A bit pointless really.

Tonight I have been over to a friends for a typical British barbecue where everyone sits out in the rain and eats raw meat! It was really nice, just a few people from work, really relaxed. But after Big Brother and one too many red wines, I was feeling a bit too relaxed, and nearly falling asleep, (I am such a lightweight) so here I am, back home writing a load of waffle, waiting for Adam to get home from his work summer party. Talking of BB though, I am *so* glad Saskia was evicted. I absolutely hated her. She blatantly didn't really liek Maxwell all that much, and just wanted to get on the cameras as much as possible, conniving little ******!

Anyway, I'd better go and get ready for bed, I had a contact lens appointment today, and the chap told me to try to make sure I didn't keep them in for more than 12 hours. So after putting them in at 6.30am today, they've been in my eyes for nearly 18hours already. oops.

Unplanned Spare Time

2005-06-29T08:46:00.000+01:00

Well not 'spare' as such, but certainly unplanned!

I came in to work this morning so find everything had turned off due to the storm. We run samples overnight, so we have the results to analyse in the morning. So nothing had run to completion, leaving me with nothing to do this morning! Well, I say nothing, I obviously have all those things I didn't bother doing yesterday, so I might finish them off. I guess its a good opportunity to do it, but the whole reason I haven't done them yet is because they're boring, and I could find so many more interesting things to do, and other people to help! I have spoken to our major customer, and told them that unfortunately they won't be getting many results today.

Well, I guess, seeing as I'm in charge today (eek!) I suppose I'd better set a good example and get off the internet!

Its now 11.45 am, I have finished everything I needed to do, and don't have anything else to do until 2pm ish. Internet shopping it is then!!

Wedding News

2005-06-28T20:37:00.000+01:00

This is really for my benefit, so I remember everything I need to do when I get back from holiday!

Wedding Cars
Wedding Rings
Flowers
Cake
Dresses for Kate and Esther
Page Boy outfits
Groom/best man/usher outfits
Orders of service
Menu
Music
Fireworks
Decoration for Church and Reception
Hair

Thats all I can think of at the moment, no doubt something else will come to mind soon.

Finishing work

2005-06-28T17:08:00.000+01:00

For once, I seem to have finished work at a reasonable hour. (I really hope this blog doesn't turn into one long moan about my job - I like it really!) So do I stay and tie up all the loose ends which have been hanging around for weeks, not getting done because I've been finishing real work off?

No way!

IT departments and Irishmen (or women!)

2005-06-28T01:55:00.000+01:00

Ok, so lets get one thing straight, I generally don't have anything against either sets of people.

First of all, IT departments. Why do we need them? As far as I can tell, when they're all out for the day for whatever reason, everything runs perfectly smoothly, and more importantly, quickly. As soon as they decide to do some work, and start fiddling around with stuff, it breaks. Which means I cannot get my job done, and end up sitting here waiting for them to fix it again, when as far as I could tell it was not broken in the first place!

Secondly, we have recently started receiving samples to test from the Republic of Ireland. Now most customers are quite happy for us to sent them their results by email. This seems to be a fast and efficient way of doing things. But for our new irish customers we have to send the results by email to ourselves (just the way our system works), copy said results onto a form, enter the results from this form into another website, and then post the form back. This seems to be very long-winded and for example, took 3 people at least 1.5 hours this afternoon to send todays results.

As you may be able to tell, I have not had the best day at work, and unfortunately, its not over yet!

Second Post

2005-06-26T22:13:00.000+01:00

Ok, so its not a very imaginitive title, but whatever happened to the 'second post' anyway? That was always a great excuse for not having any valentines cards!

So anyway, Adam and I have spent a very pleasant afternoon over at Mark and Heidi's house, just generally playing with Caleb and Elodie, who are both gorgeous! I think my favourite activity of the afternoon was the fuzzy felt, in particular Adam's very odd octopus (Heidi may even have a photo to post if you fancy a trip over to her blog). It turns out I am not very good at drawing. Caleb has got one of those magic slate type things, and likes to ask people to draw on it. Now I never thought I was particularly good at art, but when a shark turns out looking like an aeroplane, and Darth Vader looks more like a ghost from pacman, I think its time to put the pencil down!

Other than that, today has been spent finishing off a few wedding invitations (yes, if you didn't know, Adam and I are currently in the middle of planning our wedding, you should probably expect some more wedding-related items in the future!), trying to sort out a new phone for Ad, as his old one gave up the ghost yesterday, a small amount of gardening (not me!) and watching Top Gear. I actually really like that programme. I feel that I shouldn't like it, being a girl and not one who is particularly into cars, but there is something strangely compelling about a giant game of conkers with caravans!

Now I wouldn't expect 2 post in a day again any time soon, I have a ridiculously busy week at work coming up, can feel a few very long days on the horizon, so this place will either become lost in the ether like so many other diary type things I have attempted to keep in the past, or a place for venting some anger. You have been warned!

First Post!!

2005-06-26T20:23:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone!

I have been feeling recently that my entire family seem to communicate by blog, and was feeling rather left out, so here I am! I can't promise that this will be in any way interesting, or frequent, but I will do my best. At least I may have something to do now while Adam is watching sport! And if he ever decides to get Sky Sports, then I might insist on broadband so I don't feel so guilty about spending time and more importantly money sharing my thoughts with whoever may be reading this!

Bye for now!